1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus that can serve as a Web server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, it is becoming popular that document data are transmitted via a network such as the Internet in such a way that the document data are divided into document structure data and document form data. Such division of document data makes it possible for a computer to process the document data more easily. In addition, if document data of a document are divided into document structure data and document form data, it is possible to show various layouts of the document without repetitive use of the whole document data by applying a plurality of document form data items.
For instance, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) data are typically known as such document structure data and document form data, respectively, in the art. In general, when information is exhibited in form of a Web page in the Internet, a Web server generates and maintains XML data corresponding to the information. In response to receipt of a request for the information from a Web client, the Web server applies XSL data to the XML data for the purpose of XSLT (XSL Transformations) conversion. Through the XSLT conversion, the Web server converts the XML data into HTML (HyperText Markup Language) data and then sends the HTML data to the Web client.
On the other hand, image processing apparatuses that can serve as Web servers have been recently developed. Such an image processing apparatus makes it possible to convey through a widely used Web browser various data, for example, a current status of the image processing apparatus, information on stored documents, information on spooled jobs, and address information for fax transmission or e-mail transmission.
However, an XSL file accommodating such XSL data tends to have large data, because such an XSL file is created as a text file and contains many control codes such as linefeed codes, tab codes and indents to improve readability of the text file. Accordingly, it is quite difficult to maintain various XSL files in an image processing apparatus having a limited memory capacity such as ROM.
In order to overcome such a problem, a high-capacity hard disk may be provided to an image processing apparatus. In this case, however, it is impossible to prevent increasing fabrication cost of the image processing apparatus.